“I only wish to urge you to have caution with Lord Willard. Last night—”
“If we are going to speak of any improper behavior last night,” she interrupted, “why don’t you speak of your own?”
“My own?” he asked, startled.
“I saw you striding across the room—everyonesaw you! And, unlike everyone else, I also witnessed the strange exchange between yourself, Asquith, and Blackwell. Tell, me, Neville, am I correct in assuming that you drew strings to decide who would have to rescue me from my solitary state?”
The Devil!She’dseenthe string draw?
“No! We weren’t deciding who must ask you to dance.” As if that part had been the hardship. “Although I can see how you might have received that impression.”
“Magnanimous of you! Please, reveal the true subject in question. I am all agog.”
He’d walked straight into that trap, hadn’t he?
“I just…” His voice trailed. “That is to say, we wanted….” Well, dash it! “Earlier in the evening, I’d noticed your dress and thought it—”
Her brows hitched higher.
“—memorable. Not to mention widely admired. And it occurred to me, to us, that…” He stopped himself before he dug this grave any deeper. “Never mind the string draw. That was merely a silly wager. Blackwell was having a laugh, I think. And at my expense.”
“Atyourexpense? In what way?”
“Millie—”
She drew back at his pleading use of the name only her family used.
“—please, just take care with Willard.” He turned the conversation back to his original intent. “I know you think you do not need any man’s protection or advice, but Willard is excellent at deception.”
“Meaning he couldn’t possibly have asked me to dance simply for the pleasure of my company?”
He winced. “Anyone could be excused for wanting the pleasure of your company.”
“Excused?”
Hell.His stupid tongue betrayed him again. But having begun his warning, he had to finish. “Willard is not the type of man people generally believe him to be.”
She stared at him for a long, silent moment. Just when he thought the inferno in her gaze might cause him to combust, he heard a tell-tale feminine voice out in the hall.
The duchess had returned.
Both of them glanced toward the door, then back to each other.
“Your concern,” she said, “is noted. But if you do not mind, I will base my judgment of Lord Willard, or of any other gentleman who asks me to dance, on my own experience. Lord Willard has been nothing but gentleman-like.”
Her significant glance added a silent but unmistakableunlike you.
The air between them felt thin and brittle, an uncrossable gap, a hazard he had no idea how to navigate.
“Millie!” Cassie bustled into the room. “And my dear new cousin, Neville.”
Cassie shook hands with Neville first. Her gaze moved between them as if weighing whether to communicate her disapproval.
“What a delightful surprise—”
Apparently, she’d settled on showing a united front for the servants.
“—Neville, I hope all is well at home?”